Goodbyes

Our final day on the ranch was very strange. It was odd to be leaving a place which had
practically been our homes for the last month. We didn't really do much on the actual ranch that day. Just woke up, got ready and packed. Lillie took a group photo of us, Mike and Ella and the French WWOOFers in the back garden and we all said our goodbyes. We were told that
we were welcome back at any time and I'm sure if any of us return to the US it'll be on the
to-do list.

Mike offered to drive us back into town and as usual he entertained us with some stories. We eventually arrived at the airport to find out about our rental car. We shook hands with Mike and said goodbye. It was a very weird experience to be saying goodbye to Mike after getting to know him so well. We all said we'd come back and see the McCracken's if we were ever back in Arizona.

The car turned out to be a fair bit more expensive than we expected but we just had to bite the bullet and accept it as we had no other choice. It was Sam's first experience driving and he was a bit nervous but he quickly got used to it.

Chloride...

The first night after we'd parted ways with the Gold Bar we stayed in a quaint little town called Chloride not too far from Vegas. We managed to get a camping spot in an RV trailer park. The guy who ran the place was one of the friendliest people we'd met on the whole trip and he sounded like someone from Fallout 3. He kept coming over to help us with inflating the air beds and even offered us a camping lantern.

The next day we headed towards Nevada with Vegas in our sights. First of all we crossed the Hoover Dam which I thought was incredibly underwhelming. I expected it to be a lot larger and to be honest the water was far more interesting than the actual dam.

Vegas!

We decided to spend 2 nights in Sin City so we could make the most of it. We managed to book a hotel online and got a pretty good deal. Las Vegas is a very unique city indeed. It seemed to be one huge theme park with all the casinos/hotels linked together with walkways, and everything was themed around other cities such as New York and Paris. We walked around to get a feel for the place and then headed back to the hotel to get ready for a night out. There was a very strange and annoying bunch of people who would slap these little cards with numbers for prostitutes and escorts. It was funny at first but after the 100th time it started to really grind on us.

Our first bar was Coyote Ugly where there was a 2 for 1 deal on. We took full advantage of that offer and got 4 drinks and then headed elsewhere. There was an Irish bar in New York, New York which we thought we'd give a go and then wished we hadn't bothered when the pints turned out to be $8 each. We thought we'd try out the MGM and the drinks there weren't much cheaper. I gave the roulette table a try but I didn't have much luck and managed to lose $30. We met some guy that promised us he could get us into clubs, but he didn't seem to be able to make good on his promise so we left and went home.

The second day we went to see The Dark Knight Rises 2 days after the "Movie Massacre" which was a slightly edgy experience. we all agreed that the film was pretty darn good, but it couldn't have lived up to the hype surrounding it. That night we went back to Coyote Ugly and found out we had to pay to get in after 9pm and that it wasn't 2 for 1 so we had 2 drinks to make the 10 dollar entry fee worth it. We went off in search of some more cheap drink and found a very strange "rock" bar which didn't actually play rock music, but instead played shitty pop, dance and chart music. The Belagio was just down the road so we thought we'd check out the water display but we got there a bit late and only caught the last 2 minutes. After that we called a night and went to the Mad Onion for some drunken grub.

The day after we went to see Savages which I didn't think was all that great but Sam and George seemed to enjoy it. I bought my brother some cards which he'd requested as a souvenir and bought Sean and Sarah a post card but I ended up losing them somehow (sorry).

The tree of Joshua

Sick of the big cities we thought we'd try something on the opposite end of the scale, and decided to exchange a nice hotel for some camping. Joshua Tree is apparently famous for its rock climbing and that's no surprise; the scenery there is nothing short of spectacular. The drive there was incredible. There was literally miles and miles and miles of road stretching out across the desert without seeing 1 building. All of our iPods had died so we had to deal with the very limited choice of radio channels; 1 of them being a religious channel, 1 of them was an angry guy giving his opinion on the Colarado shooting, amongst other things, and the other channel just being insufferable country music.

We reached a town close to the Joshua Tree state park. It was pretty unsure whether we'd actually be able to stay there but we thought we'd drive about and see if we could set up camp. Luckily there was campsites available and better yet... we didn't have to pay any additional fees to camp there!

San Diego?/Calarnado?/Carlsbad?

San Diego was next on the list. It was an amazing feeling finally seeing the other side of America. We had actually done it, we'd gone from coast to coast and we were all dying to get into the sea. After a fair bit of driving about we decided to stay in a low cost chain of motels called Motel 6 and go for a dip. Mike had warned us that the West coast sea was actually really cold due to the water being pulled down from the Arctic. Unfortunately he wasn't lying and it was incredibly cold. Still we had a pretty good time in the sea and it was good to finish one of our goals of making it from Coast to Coast.

Laguna Beach

Laguna Beach was a pretty interesting experience. After just watching Savages (which is partially set in Laguna Beach) it was weird to actually be somewhere from the movies. Everything and everybody seemed to be incredibly well off and pretty fancy. That night we found a place right next to the beach and had a walk downtown to grab some food. We got some ice cream and had a romantic stroll on the beach which happened to coincide with some mental guys stroll on the beach where he spoke to himself loudly, so we left.

The next morning we went swimming again and went down to a little cove. We made a game out of getting wiped out by the waves. I've never experienced anything like it. The waves and currents were so strong that it literally flipped you over and twisted you on your head. The lifeguard asked us to dive under the waves but that kind of killed the fun so we headed to another beach to carry on the game. We found another beach where the waves were even bigger and more deadly, again the life guard came over but he just asked if we were ok and then let us get on with almost injuring ourselves.

The Grand Canyon Day - The Last Day of the Gold Bar Ranch

Sam fell a tad behind on the blogging situation due to our busy schedule so I (the other Sam, Morpeth) decided to take a hold of things and get everyone up to date on what we’ve done, what we’re currently doing and what we’re going to do in the very near future. As far as I know the last day that the blog was updated was just after we’d finished doing an exhausting 9 mile hike on the Bright Angel trail of the Grand Canyon. In case that’s wrong here’s a very brief description of those events:

The Grand Canyon

We decided to do a relatively easy trail called the Bright Angel trail because I’m a pussy and I didn’t want to die on the more difficult trails. It’s supposed to be easier because it has water stops every 1.5 miles but I still wouldn’t describe it as a stroll in the park. The way down wasn’t so bad but it was still pretty exhausting, we stopped for lunch at a place called the Indian Garden and enjoyed our tuna sandwiches, cereal bars and trail mix. We then decided to head back up to the top which was not achieved easily. We started out with a pretty steady pace and strategic rests in the shade, but eventually I began to lag behind and Sam and George made it up to the top about 15 minutes before I crawled victoriously to the top. We had our pictures taken by an incredibly enthusiastic and friendly American man.

All in all our epic journey took about 4 and a half hours and was incredibly tiring but me (in particular) and George were humbled by our own unhealthiness. It was still amazing to be there and just witness the epic scenery.

Payson, AZ

The night following the Grand Canyon triumph we rested our weary bones in a town called Payson. It was a very nice and quiet little town, apart from the religious guy screaming stuff out of a megaphone at passing cars. We decided to stay in a pretty swanky hotel as a reward for our supreme walking abilities. This was also the town in which I broke my 10 month streak of not eating meat and went to town on a bacon burger. George and Sam decided to try and eat buffallo and said that it tasted slightly different to beef so maybe it was worth the couple of extra bucks.

Flagstaff, AZ

We spent 2 nights in the beautiful hippy-ish town of Flagstaff, a town which Mr. Barron holds very dearly. This being the place in which he spent some of his time with ACE 2 years ago he was able to show us some of his favourite places to eat and places to go. We visited the delicious NiMarco’s pizza for lunch, enjoyed a drunken meal at Granny’s Closet (which had an American version of chicken parmo with spaghetti) and the unbelievably fantastic Wildflower Bread Company for breakfast. Wildflower was one of my favourite places to eat on the trip so far, it was just such a laid-back place with spectacular food and pretty cheap to boot.
Phoenix, AZ

Phoenix was very interesting indeed. We decided to splash out again on a hotel as it was insanely hot (reaching 53 degrees in the car at one point, and up to 43 degrees in the city), and no one could be bothered to look for a cheaper alternative. We visited our first Hooters restaurant since we’d landed in the US solely so we could sample the fine food on offer. Like I’ve mentioned earlier Phoenix is so hot there are misters hanging over the sidewalks to cool people down. We later learned most of the city is concrete causing it retain the majority of the heat. Having a bit of spare time on our hands we decided to go bowling, but we were warned that it was quite expensive by the hotel receptionist. Arriving at the bowling alley we were surprised that $8 dollars (including shoes) is expensive in America. Sam proceeded to hammer us all at bowling and won every single game from then on (even those we’d later play in Prescott).

The next day we set out with the aim of trying one of America’s favourite pastimes: baseball. Sam located a batting cage on the internet and we headed over. Unfortunately they were having maintenance on their cages and the other ones were booked. So we decided we’d visit the same bowling alleys from yesterday, being 1pm mid-week we expected this to be easy but for some reason there was a 30 minute wait on lanes so we sackede it off and decided to go and get something to eat. We arrived at Mrs. White’s cafe and ordered sandwiches which, to our surprise, did not turn out to be our own views of what a sandwich was. Instead of bread with a filling we were given the fillings, no bread (apart from some sponge cake like thing on the side) and a side-order. I left most of my choice of fish and Sam and George both gave up on their meal too.

Phoenix was also our last day with our faithful automobile, Mary, who had carried us 3500 miles across America. After our less than delightful meal at Mrs. White’s we headed off to the airport to hand in Mary’s keys and say our farewells. After an emotional goodbye (and a $5 bottle of orange juice) we boarded a shuttle to Prescott and were one day closer to reaching the ranch.

Prescott, AZ

Prescott is a small cowboy town in Arizona where we’d spend our last night before getting to Gold Bar Ranch. We stayed at a place called Sheldon Lodge where Sam managed to get a discount for being English, which was handy. We ate an amazing Thai place right next to the hotel, and were blown away by how spicy even the mildest food was. After we’d eaten we decided to go bowling again for some entertainment, and once again Sam cleaned house with George being squeezed out of victory in the last game. The bowling alley was like a school disco and it was $2 a game, which explained why the bowling alley in Phoenix was considered expensive.

The next day we got in touch with Ella so that she could come and meet us and pick us up. Unfortunately, Ella had some car trouble and we had to wait several hours for her to get everything sorted. However, it wasn’t much of a problem as Prescott always has something going on and we were treated to a Bluegrass and Country music festival. There were several groups of musicians whilst others wandered about playing solo, and sometimes they’d even just randomly join onto other groups and start playing. We also managed to talk to about 5 or 6 random strangers who just came over and began chatting. Again, the Americans showed just how friendly and helpful they are; some guy even offered us his business card in case “we got into any trouble and needed help”. Eventually Ella arrived and we introduced ourselves.

The Gold Bar Ranch

Since I’m writing this a month behind everything is a bit blurry so I’m just going to attempt to remember key events that happened and projects we worked on. All in all our time at the ranch has been incredible. It seemed like Mike and Ella did everything they could to make us feel welcome, and we truly felt appreciated and trusted. Mike at first seemed to be a very quiet and unassuming person, but once he got talking he told us some incredible stories. The inside of the house is filled with stuffed mountain lions, antelope, rams and elks, and it was clear that Mike was incredibly skilled at hunting. Ella is an incredibly friendly person who would do anything to make you feel apart of the family. You can tell that she puts her heart into the ranch and she was more than willing to put up with our incompetence and teach us.

Our daily schedule went a bit like this: wake up at 6am, get ready and walk up to the house at about 6:30am, begin work at 7am, have a break at 11am, begin work again at 12pm and work until 3:30pm and end the day with a swim in the lake. We worked on various projects and day-to-tasks such as: cleaning and feeding the dogs, putting away the chickens, painting fences, feeding the horses, constructing and painting a garden gate, weeding the gardens, cleaning up the camping facilities and a lot more.

The town of Prescott is about an hours drive from the ranch and occasionally we’d visit for certain events, and get a taste of the social life of ranchers.

The Country Dance

One of our first trips to Prescott was to go the country dance. If you imagine what you think a western country dance would be like... that’s exactly what it was like. Everyone was dressed in a  typical cowboy/cowgirl fashion: plaid shirt, huge stetson hat, cowboy boots, denim jeans. There was several people wearing American flag shirts/bandannas and it was odd but nice to see such a strong show of patriotism. Ella, Lillie (their daughter) and Liz (Lillie’s friend) offered to teach us all how to dance and so we took them up on it. Me and George found it a bit less embarrassing as fortunately we were 21 and were allowed to ply ourselves with liquid courage. I was surprised at how much I liked dancing and was looking forward to learning more of it.

The locals turned out to have a pretty good handle on the whole country dancing thing, and we watched as cowboys threw up cowgirls into the air and deftly twirled them about. There was a band playing live music and there must have been at least 1,000 people there.

The Rodeo

Whilst at the ranch we were lucky enough to go to the world’s oldest rodeo which was estabilished in 1882. Myself, George, Sam and Mike all had seats together and once again if you imagine what you think a rodeo would be like it was exactly like that. There was a heartfelt song about Arizona, the national anthem was sang with everyone stood up, their hands on their hearts and even a prayer was said. It was a very a strange experience for 3 English boys who wouldn’t know patriotism if it smashed them in the face.

The rodeo itself was brilliant and we were kept on the edge of the seats in anticipation of some horrific maiming breaking of limbs. However, luckily every limb remained intact and unbroken and Ella assured us that it was a very tame rodeo compared to other years’ shows. There were several competitions held including bucking bronco riding, bucking bull riding and steer roping. Mike told us that there was a lot of money in professional rodeo which went part way to explaining why anyone would attempt any of this stuff.

Shooting with Bob

The Gold Bar ranch also runs a B&B business on the actual ranch itself. During our stay there were some guests at the B&B and naturally we got talking to them. Bob was one of the guests and he had a really weird accent, a mix between Australian, Texan and Brummie. Anyway, he invited us to go shooting at a little range down the road. Mike drove us down there and we were allowed to shoot all of the many guns Bob had brought with him. We used 2 rifles, 1 of them bolt action (which I think was everyone’s favourite), an automatic pistol, a snub-nosed relvolver and a regular revolver. Being from England guns were somewhat of a novelty and wonder to us and we loved getting to use them. After a few shots Bob placed a bottle of water on a post and asked us to shoot it. I went first and missed, George went next and got it and Sam went last and nailed it.

The Rattlesnake

On our last working day at the ranch George, Sam and I were stood around in a circle having a break, while Ella made us iced coffee, when Mike walked past carrying a shotgun. Naturally we enquired where he was going and he replied “going to kill a rattlesnake” in a very casual manner. So, like little kids, we asked if we could come and watch and ran to jump in the truck. Ella ran out carrying our iced coffee and we had to restrain ourselves from just jumping in the truck without them. Mike drove us to a different part of the ranch and showed us where he’d pinned the snake with a stick. He then caught the snake and brought it out into the open to show us its fangs. He told us it was the most deadly type of rattlesnake and swiftly brought a shovel down on it to decapitate it. The snake’s body writhed about even without a head and the head jumped around snapping wildly at nothing. Killing the snake might seem a bit harsh but because it was so poisonous it could kill livestock, pets or even people at the ranch, so it was the safest thing to do.

Michael and Caroline

2 weeks into our month long time at the Gold Bar we were joined by 2 other WWOOFer’s from France. We got on with them incredibly well and were very impressed by their level of English which made it very easy to joke around and talk to them. They had rented a car and were kind enough to take us on several trips around Arizona. We visited a park in Sedona where we spent a night drinking and talking in a campground. We all decided to go for a swim in a small river nearby which had a 10ft high cliff jump. The water was unbelievably cold and it seemed like the water wasn’t deep enough for adults to jump in. Then along came a bunch of high and drunk Americans who were out to prove us wrong. They started asking us if we thought the trees looked purple and if we could see monkeys in them. One of them plucked up the courage to do the jump and attempted a backflip, he failed and ended up slamming on his back. His friend attempted the jump afterwards and ended up failing even harder by essentially diving flat on his side into the water.

The next day we visited the Slide Rock park and snuck in on a trail so we wouldn’t have to pay. It was essentially a river which had several natural slides made of rock. The park was absolutely beautiful and it was crammed full of people. There was a small ledge jump off but we decided we wanted something a bit more challenging and went off looking for a bigger cliff. We shortly found a gigantic cliff jump, and then we all quickly decided against it.

A night in Flagstaff

We visited Flagstaff with Michael and Caroline so we could meet up with Sam’s friend Dave, who he knew from ACE. Michael drove us all up to Flagstaff where we stayed in the same motel we stayed last time. Again, we visited NiMarco’s pizza for tea and then met up with Dave. He had invited us all to a friend’s housewarming party so we went to buy alcohol and head over. Unfortunately the only rain we experienced in a month or so came pouring down that night and Flagstaff was soaked. Instead of the arranged BBQ we instead had to make do with moving the grill underneath the porch and cooking burgers in the freezing cold. We left the party early to go and have a night out in Flagstaff. The first 2 places were reminiscent of any random shitty club in England so we swiftly left and headed to somewhere more suited to us. We came across a cool looking bar and managed to get in. However, the bouncer for some reason decided George was too drunk and wouldn’t let him in so we left. After 40 mins or so of looking for more bars we called it a night and headed home.

In the morning I woke up at about 6am and went for a wander around Flagstaff. I went to get a drink of Ice Tea to rid myself of my hangover and then waited until about 8:30am to go back in the room so I wouldn’t piss everyone else off. After a while everyone else got up and we thought we’d show the French how good Wildflower was. With breakfast finished we planned to go and see Savages at the cinema but it wasn’t on until later so we went to see The Amazing Spider-man, which was, in my opinion, average. Sam had arranged to have some farewell pizza with Dave so, again, we visited NiMarco’s. After a few slices of pizza, heartfelt hugs and handshakes we parted ways with Dave and set out on the road again. Within an hour or so of driving we ran into some trouble. Michael swerved to avoid some broken pieces of tire in the road only to unluckily hit some metal and get a puncture. He managed to change the tire so we went looking for somewhere to get a new one, although it was a Sunday at 5pm so there wasn’t much luck. After a 7 hour drive home we limped back to the Gold Bar and fell exhausted into our beds.